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Glasgow swim standard boosts Rio preps

Liam FitzGibbon

Any doubts over the strength of swimming competition at this year's Commonwealth Games are being drowned in a sea of records in Glasgow.

A world record and a stack of new Games marks have already been set at the halfway point of the six-day meet, while many finals are being run and won in times comparable to last year's world championships.

And Australia is in the thick of it.

At the halfway point of the meet its swimmers have won 11 of the 21 gold medals decided, along with 15 minor medals.

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It puts the team in a position to threaten a record haul in Delhi four years ago of 22 gold, 16, silver, 16 bronze.

Just as importantly the quality of the competition has left Australian athletes feeling they are getting an ideal preparation two years out from the Rio Olympics, despite the absence of swimming heavyweights from the US, Japan and much of Europe.

Pushed along by rising stars from Scotland, England, Canada and South Africa, even the intensity of heats has caught some by surprise.

"Coming into the competition I had a few people come up to me and ask about the depth and how it's not as competitive and what-not," male sprint star Cameron McEvoy said.

"But you saw it with the 400m freestyle heats on the opening day, it was harder to get into the final than it was last year (world championships) and at the Olympics.

"That just blows that theory out of the water and it's really good because we are pretty much at halfway of the learning curve for Rio."

Only four events completed so far have not featured a Games record while Australia's women broke a long-standing super suit world record in the 4x100m freestyle final on Thursday night.

All but one of Saturday night's individual gold medallists would have won a medal at last year's world championships had they produced the same times.

England's Fran Halsall (23.96) set a new textile record in the 50m freestyle with both she and Cate Campbell (24.00) clocking times that would have won gold in Barcelona and London.

Bronte Campbell and Melanie Schlanger, third and fifth respectively, swam fast enough to win a medal at the London Olympics.

"It just goes to show how strong sprinting is around the world and even in Australia," Bronte Campbell said.

The form of Scottish gold medallists Ross Murdoch, Daniel Wallace and Hannah Miley has been key to the depth at this week's event, along with the presence of South Africa's Olympic butterfly champion Chad le Clos.